


The All In Job

by straythoughts (HiraethSatisfied), UchiHime, UpsideofCrazy



Series: let's go steal a leverage AU [3]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Leverage Fusion, Found Family, Gen, Hacker Jisung, Heist, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Leverage AU, M/M, Multi, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Thief Jeongin, also note that this fic is set in the early middle of this series, be safe yall, ft. casino shenanigans, grifter hyunjin, grifter minho, hacker seungmin, hitter and thief felix, hitter changbin, its heist time babey!, mastermind chan, neither of those tags involve the boys and theres nothing explicit but still, with that said
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:55:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28745814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiraethSatisfied/pseuds/straythoughts, https://archiveofourown.org/users/UchiHime/pseuds/UchiHime, https://archiveofourown.org/users/UpsideofCrazy/pseuds/UpsideofCrazy
Summary: “Then it’s decided!” Chan stated, clapping his hands once in that way that Seungmin knew signaled their briefing was done. “Let’s go take Nathaniel Dupont apart, chip by chip.”...The job this time seems simple enough: steal back a necklace taken as collateral during a game of high stakes poker. But there's more to Nathanial Dupont and his Feel Special Casino than first meets the eye, and Chan and his boys are determined to find out what, exactly, happens when the chips are down.
Relationships: Everyone & Everyone, Everyone/Everyone, OT8 - Relationship
Series: let's go steal a leverage AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2102076
Comments: 21
Kudos: 119





	The All In Job

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, and welcome back to Leverage AU as brought to you by Sun, Roel, and myself!! Please do not get used to updates occurring 3 days apart lol, Sun and I just happened to have wrapped up our works at around the same time.
> 
> Note that this fic takes place in the early middle of the boys working together as a crew! It's not the immediate successor to hellevator job, and doesn't deal with what will be the overarching plot of this series. Instead, it's a fun B-Side job! That said, please note the tags: there is mention of implied sexual assault and drugging, nothing explicit, but please be safe while reading! 
> 
> Alright, with that said, enjoy The All In Job!

"If you touch my set-up with your cheese-dust fingers, I _will_ cut them off," Seungmin hissed, pulling his keyboard closer to himself. Jisung merely rolled his eyes, continuing to leave orange streaks across his side of the van.

"I'm serious," Seungmin continued. "I will borrow one of Jeongin's weird little knives and I will chop your fingers right off."

"You don't have the stomach to cut off a finger," Jisung responded, reaching down into the tub at his feet for another handful of cheese balls.

"Try me.”

"If either of you so much as looks funny at my lockpicking tools, so help me..." Jeongin trailed off, glaring at them both as he climbed into the back of the van.

Jisung sniffed haughtily. "If you cut off my fingers, I'll just make cool prostheses with laser pointers and knives and mini speakers and blow darts. So there."

"Nobody is cutting off anybody's fingers!" Chan called from the front of the van, where he was going over the building schematics with Felix one more time. Jisung thought it was maybe a bit overkill — Felix and his mnemonist tendencies had known all the ways in and out of the casino after once glance at the rather rudimentary blueprint — but Jisung also knew that Chan got like this at the start of a job, and they had all learned the hard way that it was better to let Chan run through his final checklist a billion more times for everyone's peace of mind.

 _"You do know we can hear everything you guys say, right?"_ Minho's voice crackled through their in-ears, equal parts exasperated and amused.

 _"No, let them keep going."_ Hyunjin's voice was next to filter through the in-ears. _"This is so much more entertaining than whatever stock-talk is going on right now by the slot machines."_

"Stonks," was Felix's immediate response, and Jisung quickly clambered over the various pieces of tech strewn about the back of the van to give Felix a high-five. Felix met his hand with a resounding slap, then licked the transferred cheese dust off his palm with a grin.

"Everyone on this crew is a fucking gremlin," Seungmin muttered, his gaze disgusted as he returned to angrily pecking keys at his workstation.

"Guilty as charged!" Jeongin's grin was wide as he twirled one of his 'weird little knives' at lightning speed through the first three fingers of his right hand. If Jisung hadn't seen him do this a dozen times before, he might have worried that Jeongin would soon be the proud owner of new finger prostheses. Actually, Jisung could probably engineer his lock-picking tools directly into the prostheses if that was the case…

"Guilty of what?" Changbin asked, interrupting the rough schematic forming in Jisung's mind as he easily pulled himself into the van. He was wearing what Hyunjin had dubbed his "Dom Daddy Work Shirt," which was nothing more than a simple black v-neck. Still, Jisung had to admit that Hyunjin's naming skills were on point. It was an open secret that the Dom Daddy Work Shirt was a particular favorite of every member of the crew.

"Guilty of being an absolute gremlin," Seungmin responded, not taking his eyes off his monitor. Jisung supposed he should probably be keeping an eye on his own monitor, just in case, and so he twirled back around in his chair and blocked out Changbin's protests and Jeongin's gleeful laughter as he focused back in on his screen.

The screen displayed a live feed from the button camera Jisung had sewn into Minho’s silky black vest. Hyunjin was wearing a similar camera, disguised as a lapel pin clipped to the collar of his way-too-expensive suit jacket. Its video feed was displayed on Seungmin's monitor. Jisung and Seungmin had spent far too long tinkering with the lens and the transmitter and the wires and all the little fiddly bits, but it had been worth it. The feed from the cameras, though grainy, still gave them more than enough info about the layout of the casino and the security guards stationed at every exit. It would hopefully give them enough detail to pull facial recognition on those who frequented the back-room, high-stakes poker game that fronted a truly abhorrent smuggling ring. They just had to get access to that game, first.

"MinJin, how are you guys doing with making inroads?" 

Now that he was actually paying closer attention, Jisung realized he was hearing Chan both in his in-ear and as his voice echoed through the van. It might have been disconcerting if Jisung hadn't heard this same sort of thing happen a hundred times before.

 _“I think more inroads would have been made by now if I wasn’t a_ bartender _,”_ Minho’s voice hissed through Jisung’s in-ear, and he could just about picture the narrowed eyes and downturned lips of the other. On Jisung’s screen, he watched the button-cam footage show Minho rather violently polishing an already-spotless glass.

Chan’s sigh echoed throughout the van and within Jisung’s in-ear. “Minho, we went over this.”

“Yeah, you need to figure out what’s going on with their ‘specialty drinks,’” Changbin reminded him, and Jisung could hear the grin curling around his next words. “Plus, we needed someone actually terrible at cards to bait the marks.”

 _“Hey!”_ Hyunjin’s indignant squawk had Jisung wincing slightly and rolling his eyes at the other.

 _“I_ am _very good at blackjack,”_ Minho mused.

“Exactly. Hyunjin, not so much.” Chan’s every word was a sigh. “Hyunjin, no, stop; you can’t even say anything, you know I’m right.”

Hyunjin’s half-aborted protests were glazed over by Chan, and Jisung smirked to himself. Served the other right. At least he got to get out of the van and into the action! Meanwhile, Jisung was stuck here and would be stuck here through the entirety of the con, feeding the others info and rerouting security camera footage on the fly. He’d have Seungmin with him, though, which he supposed was better than nothing. Jisung cast a quick glance over to where Seungmin was making sure his keyboard was perfectly in line with his monitor. _Probably_.

Eventually, Hyunjin’s grumbling turned into an actual question. _“How much do you want me to lose?”_

Chan hummed. “Two, maybe three thousand? Enough to let them know you’ve got some liquid assets, but not enough that they’ll try to rope you here and now. Remember, we want to get a better feel for who, exactly, what we’ll be working against before we track down where they’ve stashed Mina’s necklace and the other valuables.”

 _“Got it,”_ Hyunjin said. A second later his character was sliding over him, voice turning the slightest bit tipsy and words stuttering over themselves as he loudly asked for directions to the blackjack tables.

Chan turned his gaze to the group gathered in the back, his grin wide and shark-like.

“Showtime, mates.”

…

In any other situation, Chan wouldn’t have taken this job. The crew was only a week or so out of their last job, and Chan liked to give the boys two weeks between cons if he could help it. (That didn’t mean Chan would stop working on his own little projects, but the others deserved the rest.) Plus, the premise for this job had been weak at best: an expensive necklace had been taken as collateral for an unpaid debt at a casino. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing that Chan and his crew would investigate. But the client was a friend of Sana’s, and Chan had known Sana for long enough to know that this request probably had some meat on its bone. So, Chan was currently seated at their customary corner table in the backroom of the bar, Felix on his left and Minho on his right, waiting for Mina Myoi to show.

The woman who eventually made her way hesitantly over to Chan’s table was what Chan would have expected of a friend of Sana’s: beautiful, graceful, and probably cunning enough to con half the city twice-over. Mina Myoi seemed a bit more subdued than Sana, but Chan had no doubt she shared her friend’s wit if the way her eyes were carefully analyzing Chan and his two boys was any indication.

After a few moments where Mina made no move to introduce herself, Chan eventually spoke up. “You must be Mina.”

“And you must be Chan,” Mina replied, voice soft and careful. Her eyes flicked between Minho and Felix. “These are…?”

“I’m Felix! And this is Minho. We’re part of Chan’s crew.”

If Mina was taken aback by the way Felix’s deep voice contrasted with his youthful features, she didn’t show it. She had a hell of a poker face, and Chan found himself wondering how she had managed to lose something of such value at a casino.

“Sana’s given me a rough recap of what happened at the Feel Special Casino, but I’d appreciate a more detailed description of what went down,” Chan said.

Mina gave a slight nod and sank gracefully into the booth seat across from the three men.

 _She could be a dancer_ , Chan thought idly. _Or a thief._

“It happened last Friday,” Mina started. “Some of the girls and I had decided to go out for a night. I’m not huge into the club scene, but it was Nayeon’s birthday, and you don’t exactly say no to Nayeon.” Mina chuckled lightly, her fists unclenching as she relaxed into the booth. Chan nodded at her to continue.

“We stopped by a couple places and were kinda just wandering when Jeongyeon spotted a flyer for The Feel Special Casino. They were doing some drink special thing, I can’t remember exactly, but that had been enough of a reason for us to stop by. Turns out the drinks really did make us ‘feel special,’ though not in the way we wanted.” Mina laughed bitterly, and Minho’s eyes hardened.

“They drugged you.”

“Yeah.” The word was barely a sigh passing from Mina’s lips. Chan felt his jaw clench, and he fought the urge to head over to the Feel Special Casino and tear the place down brick by brick. This kind of job was exactly up Chan’s alley, and he was sure the rest of his crew would agree. Felix and Minho already seemed very on board. Felix reached out a hand, palm up, to rest on the table. Mina took it with a small smile.

“Nothing that kind of terrible happened,” Mina continued, and Chan felt his jaw relax somewhat. “Or, well, nothing that extreme. I think I might’ve been pulled onto a lap at some point? And some of the other girls became arm candy for the evening, but nothing further than that, thank god. The evening’s a bit hazy, but we were able to piece together that much.”

Chan saw Felix’s hand squeeze gently around Mina’s as her gaze dropped to the table.

“Pardon my bluntness,” Minho interjected in as soft of a voice as he could manage, “but why do you think they drugged you?”

“To make us dumb,” Mina replied, gaze rising from the table and eyes flashing in anger. “To make us stupid, and impulsive, and easy to fool.”

“We had dressed up that night for Nayeon’s birthday, and we had been wearing jewelry – expensive jewelry. They must have noticed it once we got into the casino, and decided they wanted those pieces, so they drugged us and invited us to a backroom poker game. It was rigged, of course, but by that point we were too out of it to notice, and when we ran out of chips they gave us a choice: we could pay up with the jewelry, or they could find us an… alternate means of payment.” Mina’s face twisted into something equally disgusted and mournful.

“You were already drugged, it would have been…” Felix trailed off, quickly bringing his other hand up to cradle Mina’s as well.

“We gave up our jewelry,” Mina said. “And it’s not even that the cost is anything we’re worried about, but the idea that they might target people without the ability to pay with material goods…”

The unspoken alternative hung heavy over the table.

“We’ll take the job,” Chan announced, and Felix and Minho nodded at his words. He’d normally consult with the rest of the team, but he had a feeling they’d all be on the same page about this one. “Mina, did you or any of the other girls get a good look at any of those involved in the poker game, or at the bartenders who served you?”

Mina shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. None of us were really paying much attention to the bartenders – we were already a bit tipsy at that point, which probably also made us easier targets. And then after those drinks… I’m sorry, I can’t remember the faces of any of the players.”

“That’s fine Mina, don’t worry.” Chan made his voice as soft and as unthreatening as he could, before his words sharpened. “We’ll find them. And we’ll take them down.”

Mina offered him a smile in return just as sharp as his own.

…

“Meet Nathaniel Dupont,” Seungmin announced. He and Jisung were standing in front of the sectional where all the other boys were huddled together for the mark briefing. These presentations happened at the start of every con they ran. Seungmin and Jisung would dig up all the dirt they could on their marks beforehand and would then present that info to the rest of the boys, getting them all up to date on their targets and kickstarting the brainstorming process for what, exactly, would be their con of choice.

The man in question was displayed prominently on the multi-screen display behind Seungmin, looking expensive and haughty in a custom Armani suit. Seungmin had taken one look at his face and instantly loathed him. Apparently, so had the rest of the group.

“He looks like a douche,” Jeongin said, his nose crinkling.

“He _is_ a douche!” Jisung chirped, clicking a button to advance the presentation to the next screen. The new image depicted Nathaniel looking smug in front of the Feel Special Casino as a scantily clad woman hung off his right arm and a scantily clad man hung off his left. “Example A!”

“What Jisung means,” Seungmin elaborated, rolling his eyes at the other as Jisung stuck out his tongue, “is that Nathaniel Dupont, on the surface, owns and manages the Feel Special Casino.”

“And below the surface?” Changbin asked, eyeing the face of Nathaniel with disgust.

“Below the surface he’s something worse than a douchebag,” Jisung remarked, voice growing cold and hollow.

Seungmin reentered the conversation, helping to steer it back on track. “By every financial indication, Nathaniel Dupont should not have enough money to keep his casino operating, let alone at the flashy level it’s currently running. His records are an absolute mess, but I managed” — Jisung cleared his throat rather obnoxiously, and Seungmin amended his statement with a hearty eyeroll — “but _Jisung and I_ managed to tease out that the casino seems to have an alternative revenue source. Two, actually.”

Jisung took over where Seungmin left off with ease. “Dupont runs a couple backroom poker games. From what Mina’s told us, you don’t get invited to these games as much as informed you’re now playing poker, then they rig the games so that the house always wins. Plus, they drug you beforehand, which is a whole new level of nasty. When you lose, you’re given two options: pay up with material possessions such as jewelry, which is their first revenue source, or…” Jisung trailed off, looking to Seungmin with eyes that were wide and angry and helpless.

Seungmin took over, because he could say this next bit if Jisung could not. “Or you pay with your body.”

The room was incredibly silent. 

Seungmin clicked to the next slide, this one showing a rough blueprint of the casino. “The schematics for the Feel Special Casino are bare bones at best, but there appear to be a bunch of smaller rooms tucked away in the back of the casino that don’t seem to have any relation to the rest of the building. We think these are ‘pleasure’ rooms, where those who are unable to pay their debts to the casino via traditional means are brought to… to entertain guests for the rest of the night. The casino doesn’t have to house these people as they’re temporary presences, but Dupont likely makes a fair bit off of them. This is their other revenue source.”

The living space remained quiet for a few beats, those on the couch still processing Seungmin’s words. 

Eventually, Hyunjin blurted out, “That’s so _wrong_.”

“The victims can’t even do anything, either,” Jisung agreed, voice tight. “If they lose their jewelry, then the casino can say it was legal tender used instead of chips; all very above board and kosher and so untouchable by the law. And if the victims, um, have to take the… the alternate payment option, then they can’t do anything in that case either because there’s never any proof that anything happened, and the victims are documented as having been drinking because the bar only takes credit cards, which would make everything fall through in any court case no matter what the law says.”

“That’s _wrong_ ,” Hyunjin murmured again, eyes bright with anger and tears. Seungmin felt his heart plummet at the hurt present in Hyunjin’s words, and he felt his resolve to take down Nathaniel Dupont strengthen into something unbreakable.

“It is,” Chan said, rising to his feet and coming to stand in front of the monitors, facing the boys on the couch. “Which is why we’re going to stop it.”

A sadistic grin spread onto Minho’s face, and Seungmin felt his own lips twitching upwards in response. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking The Roundabout,” Chan stated, and Changbin perked up.

“Oh! I love The Roundabout!”

“You just like how good the uniform makes you look,” Minho jeered, and Changbin smirked back at him.

“I don’t hear any complaints from any of the others.” 

Minho gave Changbin a raised eyebrow in return but didn’t say anything further. It was true; Changbin always managed to look unfairly good in any kind of uniform, not that Seungmin would ever say that out loud.

“Then it’s decided!” Chan stated, clapping his hands once in that way that Seungmin knew signaled their briefing was done. “Let’s go take Nathaniel Dupont apart, chip by chip.”

…

Hyunjin was about halfway through blowing all of his money on this blackjack table when Chan's voice piped up in his ear.

 _"Hyunjin, change of plan,"_ Chan said, and Hyunjin felt himself instinctively straightening in his seat. _"You're getting into the poker game tonight, and you're gonna lose an engagement ring."_

 _“Tonight? Like, now? But we’re not ready!”_ Jisung’s voice was pitched in a way that let Hyunjin know he was maybe veering towards some kind of panic.

Thankfully Chan, like the rest of them, picked up on the tone immediately, and when he spoke next his voice was soft and slow and soothing. _“We have to do it tonight. The casino’s hosting an auction tomorrow night – not sure how I missed it earlier, but I’m nearly certain this auction is gonna be their time to shift the stolen jewelry off-site. Jisung, you’re ready. I know you’re ready; you’re Han Jisung! You all are more than ready, and we need to do this_ now _.”_

 _"Wait, Hyunjin doesn't have the engagement ring,"_ Changbin said, voice still a bit hesitant.

 _"Of course he does,"_ Chan said, and there was a smile in his words. _"You proposed months ago."_

Changbin was left to splutter as Jisung’s and Felix's laughter echoed through Hyunjin's in-ear. He could just about feel the strength of Seungmin's eye roll, even from a hundred or so yards away.

 _"I'll be the ring-bearer!"_ Jeongin claimed. He had the nimblest fingers of all of them and could easily pass an object the size of an engagement ring to Hyunjin without anyone else noticing. Chan quickly gave his assent.

_"Hyunjin, start winning some of these blackjack rounds. They need to see you as a bigger target than you are currently.”_

"But I'm shit at blackjack," Hyunjin murmured with lips that barely moved, hiding the words behind a nose itch.

 _"Minho, coach him,"_ Chan said.

_"You got it. Seungmin, feed me the table layout through your little camera thing. Hyunjin, draw when I say so, otherwise hold."_

Hyunjin hummed his assent, the sound nothing but a melodic consideration of his cards to the others at the table, and began the arduous task of winning back his former losses.

Minho, as he had proclaimed, was an absolute whiz at blackjack. He seemed more in control of the game than the house, despite being nowhere near the table. Before too many more rounds had passed, Hyunjin had done a complete 180 in his gambling trajectory. He had also started to draw some eyes. One set, in particular.

"That's quite the recovery, huh?" the lone remaining man at the table stated, eyebrows raised. The rest of the table had floated off to other sections of the casino over the course of Hyunjin winning back his losses, but this other man had remained.

When Hyunjin had joined this table, the man had introduced himself as Jack. A few days ago during the crew's briefing, Jisung and Seungmin had introduced him as Jacques Fremont, a little-known business associate of Nathaniel Dupont and a common plant in his casino. Hyunjin had settled at this blackjack table specifically because Jacques Fremont had been present. His initial goal had been to glean some info on the casino, its owner, and its backroom dealings. Now, Hyunjin's new goal was to get this man to invite him to one of those backroom events. Tonight.

"What can I say?" Hyunjin remarked in the lazy cadence he had adopted for this con, lacing just enough arrogance into the statement to raise the other man's hackles. "Lady Luck must be loving me tonight."

Sure enough, he saw something in Jack's eyes harden at the flippant attitude. _Hook,_ Hyunjin thought.

"Do you think she'll stick around through the rest of the evening?" Jack asked, aiming for nonchalance but falling far short of the mark. Hyunjin could've laughed at the poor attempt at a grift if he hadn't been fully devoted to his own character at the moment.

"I think she's been loving me for much longer than a single evening," Hyunjin replied, and gave Jack a wink that bordered on flirtatious. Jack's pupils dilated, just a hint, and Hyunjin let his lips curl into a smirk.

 _Line,_ Hyunjin thought.

 _“Oh, I hate this man,”_ Seungmin said, sounding surprised at himself.

 _“You think?”_ Jisung hissed.

 _“Guys,”_ Chan started, before Jeongin’s cheerful voice interrupted whatever petty argument was inevitably about to sprout up.

_“Delivery!”_

That one word was the only warning Hyunjin got before the back of his chair was suddenly yanked backwards. Jeongin stumbled nearly into Hyunjin’s lap, doing a rather masterful rendition of a drunk man. Hyunjin was proud to see that Jeongin had heeded his advice on the character; his clothes were rumpled in just the way Hyunjin had taught him, and his steps were large and loose. When Jeongin leaned heavily on Hyunjin’s seat, as if to catch his balance, his hand wormed its way inside the breast pocket of Hyunjin’s entirely too expensive suit. There was the lightest of tugs on Hyunjin’s jacket as Jeongin deposited a ring into the pocket. Then Jeongin was stumbling away, murmuring slurred apologies as Hyunjin curled his own lips into a sneer.

“Fucking drunks,” Jack grumbled, eyeing Jeongin with derision. Hyunjin swallowed the sudden urge to claw the other’s eyes out and let his expression settle into something like contempt.

“Bet that’s the only time in his life he’ll touch a jacket of this quality.”

 _“Bet this is the first time in his life that Hyunjin’s touched a jacket of this quality, too,”_ Jisung chirped, mimicking him. While the very opposite was true, Hyunjin was well-versed in the art of ignoring Jisung, and so tuned him out in favor of paying attention to Jack. The latter had managed to inch himself closer to Hyunjin since Jeongin’s little stunt.

“Oh? You got money yet to spend, pretty boy?”

“I do…” Hyunjin dragged the word out, lowering his head just enough so that he was looking through his eyelashes at Jack. By the way the other’s throat bobbed, he was pretty sure the look was fulfilling its intended purpose. “But I really should be getting back to the mister…”

Hyunjin reached into his jacket pocket, drawing out the ring Jeongin had left for him and twisting it in his fingers. It was entirely too gaudy for Hyunjin’s tastes. But, then, he wasn’t supposed to be “Hyunjin” right now, was he? The rather sizable diamond did do a good job of catching the low lights of the casino. It also managed to catch Jack’s eye.

“That’s a pretty pricey rock.”

“I’m a pretty pricey guy.”

Jack’s grin stretched into something Hyunjin was sure the other meant to be inviting. “I’ve got a proposition.”

Hyunjin stopped fiddling with the ring. “I’m listening.”

“How would you like to join a poker game? Very exclusive, very high stakes. Perfect for a pretty, pricey guy like yourself.”

Hyunjin turned the anger rising in his cheeks into a blush, ducking his head to come off as shy when really all he wanted to do was scream and punch Jack square in the jaw.

 _“We could just gank him and be done with it,”_ Changbin murmured darkly in his in-ear, and Hyunjin played off his reflexive smile as consideration of Jack’s proposition.

“I think I’d be interested. Tonight?”

Jack’s smile was lecherous and disgusting and it was only Chan’s quiet murmur of _“you’re almost there, Jinnie”_ that kept Hyunjin from decking him then and there.

“No time like the present,” Jack said, smile and voice and suit and personality all so nauseatingly fake.

 _Sinker_ , Hyunjin thought, and followed Jack further into the casino.

…

“I hope you know it physically pained me to watch you waste such incredible hands in that game,” Seungmin remarked as soon as Hyunjin had returned for the night, around $5,000 and one heavily modified engagement ring poorer.

Jeongin rolled his eyes at Seungmin’s tone, but he did have to agree. Hyunjin had managed to pull some truly spectacular poker hands, but in the name of the con he’d had to let them go to waste. It was a necessary cross to bear for Hyunjin’s pride.

“I know, I was the one actually losing!” Hyunjin protested, flopping down onto one of the beanbags Jisung had used to “decorate” the van. “God, and all the other guys there were so patronizing…”

“I think you mean ‘predatory.’” Seungmin said, voice darkening, and Jeongin was reminded of what, exactly, was at stake here.

“Is that part of why you moved the timeline up, Chan?” Jeongin asked, catching Chan’s eye from where he was still stationed in the front of the van.

Chan gave him a soft smile in return. “Well, that and the auction. And I figured, Jisung already made the ring, might as well put it into play immediately, right?”

“Oh, yeah, okay, ‘Jisung made the ring.’ Not like I spent sixteen consecutive hours hunched over the tiniest fucking screwdrivers you’ve ever seen in your life trying to figure out how to jam tracking components in a literal two millimeter thick band! But no, yeah, lets just throw all of that effort away in a fucking dependent clause of a sentence!”

Jeongin was well accustomed to Jisung’s little rants. Every con, they asked him to come up with some fantastical piece of tech. Every con, he bitched and whined and lamented and _delivered_. And then bitched and whined and lamented the process some more afterwards. Jeongin was also very familiar with the rest of the crew’s reactions – or, rather, their lack thereof – to Jisung’s protests.

Seungmin, surprisingly, did comment, “I didn’t know you knew what a dependent clause was,” to which Jisung replied with a rather heated, “I know lots of things!” and that was that.

“So,” Changbin drawled. “Break-in time?”

“Break-in time,” Chan confirmed. “Felix, you got the guard uniform?”

“Yup!” Felix said, proudly displaying the security guard uniform Jeongin had nabbed for him.

It had taken some rather fancy thievery to get that uniform; Jeongin had picked his way through door after door to get to the security guards’ break room (getting Seungmin and Jisung to divert camera feeds as needed), then picked his way into a locker, then worn the uniform out under his ill-fitting “drunk chic” look (as Hyunjin had dubbed that particular style of outfit).

Okay, so maybe the whole affair actually boiled down to a lot of lock-picking and some rather basic thievery, but still. Jeongin was going to be proud of this accomplishment, no matter how minor.

“Great,” Chan said, before lightly pressing a finger to his in-ear. “Minho, how’s the bartending going?”

_“The bartending part’s going great. The whole ‘figuring out where the drugs are’ part, not so much.”_

“Alright, well, keep at it. You’ve got another hour or so until Jeongin and Felix finish their thing, Changbin does his thing, and the casino realizes it has been very thoroughly robbed. Speaking of” — Chan met Jeongin’s eyes — “Jeongin, you’re on vent duty until Felix secures the site of entry.”

Jeongin felt his lips drawing into an unconscious pout. “But I hate vent duty! Why can’t I be the security officer and Felix can do vents? He actually _likes_ vents!”

“I do like vents!” Felix said.

Chan shook his head. “Innie, you’ve already been inside the casino as a drunk man. If anyone then sees you as a guard and connects the dots, you’re blown, and so’s the con. Sorry, but you’re on vent duty this time around.”

Jeongin kept the pout on his face, but he knew Chan was right. And so he left the van in his vent-crawling outfit, but kept the slight pout on his face the entire time he was within eyesight of Chan. Once Felix, Changbin, and Jeongin reached the back of the casino, he let the pout drop off his face and accepted the boost Changbin gave him to reach one of the windows. Changbin had escorted Felix and Jeongin to the back entrance – “just in case” – and would be keeping a lookout while the two of them located the stolen goods and brought them out, Robin Hood style. Minho was still at the bar, but the rest of the boys were piled in the van. The next part of this con was all Jeongin and Felix.

Once Jeongin had successfully jimmied the lock on the window, he pulled himself into an electrical room before sticking his head back out the window to give Felix and Changbin a thumbs up.

“You need me, you tell me. I’ll be there,” Changbin said, eyes serious and hands loosely clasped into fists.

“I know, Bin! We’ll be fine, though. Best thieves this side of the Pacific, remember?” Felix gave Changbin a wink before blowing a kiss up to Jeongin. “See you inside, Innie!”

Jeongin rolled his eyes, but watched as Felix turned to the doors beneath the window and carefully swiped the security badge Jeongin had snatched along with the uniform. The card worked, and a second later Felix was disappearing into the maze that was the back hallways of the Feel Special Casino. With one last nod down at Changbin, Jeongin followed Felix into the casino.

Before Jeongin or Felix headed out into the winding back hallways of the casino, they checked in with their eyes in the skies (or, well, their mans in the vans) regarding additional security measures.

 _“Not even a security camera back there,”_ Seungmin said in response. _“These guys must be really cocky.”_

 _“Or there’s stuff back here they don’t want people to see,”_ Chan murmured darkly, and the implications of his statement travelled in a sickly wave down Jeongin’s spine.

Refocusing back on the task at hand, Jeongin was quick to locate and shimmy up into one of the vents, adjusting his gloves and soft-tipped shoes beforehand so as to be as quiet as possible. From there, it was just a manner of following Chan’s quiet instructions as to which way he should turn to keep himself roughly above Felix’s position. 

Those directions were mostly for Jeongin’s benefit. Felix had known all the ways in, out, and through the casino after spending thirty minutes with the schematics, but Jeongin could probably get lost in an empty room if it was big enough. That was alright, though. Jeongin’s area of expertise lay more in the mechanical side of things, which made Felix and him a great duo.

After another few thousand turns, Jeongin finally made it to the room where the tracking ring was housed. (“Thousand” might have been a bit of an overstatement, but Jeongin really, _really_ didn’t like vents.) Felix gave the all clear, and Jeongin dropped down from the ceiling to land in a neat crouch beside the other.

“Is the security manual or digital?” Jeongin asked, giving the door and its keypad a once over and positioning his button cam so that Jisung could see.

 _“Looks like a bit of both,”_ Jisung replied. _“Seungmin and I can take the digital if you guys handle the manual afterwards. Can you plug in the USB thing I gave you?”_

“Aye aye, captain!” Felix cheered softly, inserting the little “magic stick” (Jisung’s words) into one of the ports along the side of the keypad. After a few moments, the keypad beeped once before its lights slowly dimmed to darkness.

 _“Hell yeah,”_ Seungmin let out a quiet cheer, and Jeongin turned his smile towards Felix. 

“Mind if I take this one?”

Felix gave a little half-bow. “Be my guest.”

Jeongin whipped out his lock-picking tools and turned to the door. It looked like a standard double-deadbolt to Jeongin. In other words, it would be a walk in the park. Sure enough, seventeen seconds later, the door was swinging open. It was a little slower than his usual time, but Jeongin blamed the vents. Felix offered him a hand, palm out, and Jeongin smacked it.

“Let’s clean these bastards out.”

As expected, the backroom was full of watches and earrings and necklaces and rings; various pieces of expensive jewelry people could pawn off to repay their casino debts. Jeongin very purposefully did not think of how those who didn’t have such luxury items would pay. Instead, he swept the merchandise into one of the two duffle bags he had brought, giving the other to Felix. They made quick work of collecting the valuables. Jeongin and Felix gave one more look around the now-barren room, then headed out the way they had come in. They met no opposition, and soon rendezvoused with Changbin, and then the rest of the crew.

Phase One of The Roundabout was complete.

…

Phase Two began roughly an hour later with a bang.

Quite literally, as Changbin shoved the casino doors open with the full brunt of his rather considerable strength. The action drew the heads of everyone in the immediate vicinity of the entrance. Given that it was a Friday night in Vegas, the action drew a _lot_ of heads.

 _Good_ , Changbin thought. _The more witnesses, the better._

 _“Alright now, Changbin. Remember what I’ve taught you,”_ Minho’s voice murmured through his in-ear. Changbin could see him at the bar, still; hunched over the glassware to disguise the slight movement of his lips.

“I’ve literally been on undercover missions before,” Changbin murmured in response.

_“Still. It’s a different, hm, technique, shall we say?”_

_“Changbin, you must become The Karen!”_ Felix giggled.

Changbin fought the urge to roll his eyes, and instead asked in the most commanding voice he could manage, “Where is the manager of this casino?”

“Sir,” one of the waitstaff started to say, but Changbin brushed off his fluttering hands easily.

“No, bring me the manager! This casino _swindled_ my fiancé’s engagement ring from him just hours ago! They _stole_ the ring! Just _took_ it!”

Changbin made sure to emphasize the “words of thievery,” as Minho had called them. It would supposedly help link the casino to the idea of stolen items in the minds of all the patrons, who had slowly begun to congregate around the entrance.

“Sir, if you could just—” The waitstaff tried to speak again, but Changbin was louder.

“I demand to see the manager, at once!”

“That would be me, sir.” 

Changbin whipped his head to the side at the new voice and was met with the gently smiling face of Nathaniel Dupont.

“Nathaniel Dupont, owner and manager of the Feel Special Casino, at your service. Now, would you be so kind as to follow me into my office, so we can get this matter sorted?”

 _“No, you need to keep the scene public,”_ Chan said.

“I know, Chan,” Changbin whispered. Chan had a tendency to micromanage everything; he’d been doing it back when they were partners working for the Bureau, and it seems he was still doing it now, even after flipping his colors.

“Excuse me?” Dupont asked.

“I said, uh, ‘no go, man!’ We’re going to settle this, here and now! You’re going to go get my fiancé’s engagement ring—which, might I add, was given to me by my mother just before her passing—and you’re going to return it to me. Immediately.”

 _“Nice touch with the dead mother guilt trip,”_ Minho said. Changbin bit back the urge to thank him.

“Sir, that ring was offered as tender in a poker game. Legally, the casino owns that property now.” The faint lines around Nathaniel Dupont’s nose and mouth had deepened, just slightly. It was a surefire sign that the man was well past the point of annoyance, despite his calm veneer.

“Then I’ll buy it back!” Changbin roared. “That ring was left to me by my mother to give to the man I love, even if he is absolute shit at poker!”

The crowd gathered at the periphery of Changbin’s act had begun to whisper among themselves. Changbin could practically see the gears spinning in Dupont’s head as his gaze darted among the gathered throng of patrons.

“Fine. Fine, you can buy back the ring. Jacques!”

No sooner had the words left Dupont’s mouth than a man Changbin recognized as Jacques Fremont appeared. He listened intently to Dupont’s whispered instructions, then took off at a brisk pace for the backrooms where Changbin knew he would find their treasure vault wiped completely clean. Changbin fought to keep the knowing grin off his face.

“Glad we could settle this reasonably,” he said to Dupont. Dupont’s eye twitched in response.

“Yes. Quite… reasonably.”

“Now then” —Changbin whipped out a leather-bound checkbook— “to whom should I make this payment?”

“Make it out to—” Dupont was interrupted by Jacques rushing back into the main entrance and fumbling to a stop by Dupont’s side.

Changbin could only make out snatches of his frantic yet hushed words— “ring… gone… empty… thief…” —but, lucky for him, Changbin knew exactly what was going on.

“What?” he exclaimed, making sure to use his very best “announcements” voice from back in his FBI briefing days, “My ring is missing? It’s _stolen_? Along with all your other so-called poker tender?”

 _“Maybe laying it on a bit thick there, Changbin,”_ Chan cautioned.

 _“I think he did great!”_ Jisung remarked. Changbin made a mental note to buy him some extra cheese balls later, and to maybe snub Chan during a high five down the road or something.

“No, no, it’s not…” Dupont tried to start, but the crowd around them was already whipping itself into a frenzy.

“Don’t worry!” Changbin boomed, and here it came, the part he absolutely loved in any context, real or not. He whipped out his Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department badge, a surprisingly skillful forgery by Jeongin. “I’ll handle this.”

Changbin absolutely relished the look of dawning realization and horror on Dupont’s face as Changbin pulled out his phone and began barking fake orders into it. The investigation into the goods stolen from the Feel Special Casino had just become very probing and very, very public.

...

Minho loved playing bartenders. For one, there was the access to free, unlimited booze (as long as you didn’t get caught sampling the wares, or as long as you could talk your way out if you did). For another, there were the people. Something about sitting down at a bar made people want to spill their life’s story, inebriated or not, and Minho was more than happy to lend an ear.

The crew was around half a week or so into Phase Two of The Roundabout, and about a full week into the con as a whole. So far, Minho had prevented one divorce, furthered two others (because Denise and Valencia both deserved _so_ much better), served as the gay awakening for a handful of business-types, successfully carded roughly a dozen different teenagers, and distributed incredible amounts of sage advice. He had also made quite a few bomb ass cocktails.

What he hadn’t managed to do was find where the drugs used to spike drinks were stashed. He hadn’t seen any of the drinks actively being spiked, either, despite keeping an eye on every other bartender he’d worked with so far.

 _Maybe Dupont put his… side business on hold during the investigation_ , Minho thought, casting his gaze over to Changbin.

With some light coaching from Minho and Hyunjin, Changbin had sweet-talked his way up the ranks of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police force. He now served as head of the task force investigating the casino robbery, and had been spectacular at turning the whole thing into quite the public spectacle. And, Minho had to admit, he did look rather remarkable in the uniform.

Though Changbin was in the clear for now, the rest of them had to be extra cautious during the police investigation. Hyunjin had been burnt as Changbin’s fiancé, so he was largely out of the picture. Instead, Chan had selected Felix to act as Changbin’s backup.

Felix was seated beside Changbin now, brows furrowed as he glanced over some schematic he had no doubt already memorized. Felix had been getting more and more into grifting lately, and Minho and Hyunjin had been all too happy to encourage his interest. Minho had also caught Jisung practicing character voices late one night in a backroom of Chan’s pub, but this casino was chock-full of burly security guards and actual armed law enforcement, and Jisung wasn’t exactly the fighting type. Felix was, and so Felix was the one on the grift this time round. It was just a bonus that Felix also looked very, very good in the uniform.

Minho forced his gaze back to the bar. It was early in the evening, so business had yet to really pick up. Though the investigation had initially brought a lot of looky-loos to the casino, they had quickly grown bored after a night or so, and the casino had grown quieter than ever. Slow nights meant bad business for the bar, which meant that Minho was edging closer and closer to being let go from this temporary bartender job. Time was running out on this con.

By his estimates, Minho had tonight, _maybe_ tomorrow to figure out where the hell the casino was keeping its drugs so that he could direct Changbin and Felix to direct the actual law enforcement officers to the supply. The crew had known going into this job that they wouldn’t be able to get Dupont on the actual backroom dealings. There was too much plausible deniability, too many moving parts, too much of it still in the dark. Illegal drugs, though; those were pretty damning. Especially if Minho could actually catch someone in the act…

A quick glance at his partner for tonight—some fresh-faced girl barely out of high school, it looked like—made Minho pretty certain he wouldn’t be witnessing any spiked drinks anytime soon. The girl was probably a temp like him; the actual bartenders at the casino were likely lying low, waiting for the extra heat to die down.

 _I’ve literally examined every lime wedge at this bar_ , Minho thought to himself, poking one of the green fruits despondently. _This place is stupidly clean. A shiny, pretty face for all the shiny, pretty people to–_

Minho’s thoughts slammed to a halt. That was it! The bar was a face! And the very first rule of every casino is to never break your poker face. Obviously, the casino wouldn’t air its dirty laundry out here in the public eye.

“I’m gonna go do some quick inventory before the crowds start coming,” Minho announced to his bartending partner. She gave him a hum in response, typing half-heartedly at her phone. If she was aware of just how slim the crowds would be later that evening, and thus just how pointless Minho’s inventory actually was, she kept it to herself.

Changbin caught his eye as Minho was turning to excuse himself back towards the storage area. _“What are you doing.”_ It wasn’t a question. Minho couldn’t see his lips moving from this distance, but he did see Felix’s head whip up to stare at Minho as Changbin spoke.

“Following a hunch,” Minho replied.

 _“What hunch.”_ That was Seungmin; demanding and questioning and maybe the slightest bit nervous.

“It’ll be two seconds,” Minho replied, turning fully away from Changbin and Felix and heading out of the main entryway of the casino towards storage.

 _“Minho, there aren’t cameras back there. We can’t see you; we just have your button cam footage,”_ Jisung said.

Minho broke into a wide grin. “Perfect.”

No cameras meant things the casino didn’t want just anybody to see; things like drugs used to spike drinks.

 _“What is he doing?”_ Jeongin hissed. Minho ignored him, instead making a beeline for the fairly large walk-in storage pantry that had been pointed out to him during his first shift.

 _“Minho, I don’t think_ — _”_ Chan’s voice cut out abruptly as soon as Minho stepped into the storage area. Minho didn’t notice. His entire being was focused on figuring out just which little tucked-away nook held the smoking gun that would bring the whole war on drugs crashing through the front doors of the Feel Special Casino.

“If I were a fairly sizable amount of illegal drugs, where would I be?” Minho murmured, meticulously picking his way through the shelves. He trailed his hand along jar after carton after jar of mix-ins and additives and garnishes.

“Let’s see, I’m probably white, probably powdery, probably disguised as some sort of sugar or salt…” His hand stopped as he reached a collection of jars filled with various white powders of different coarseness. “Bingo.”

A few of the jars containing larger, coarser granules had “salt” scribbled across their tops in messy handwriting. A number of other jars were labelled “sugar” and filled with a finer white substance. And there, tucked away towards the back of the shelf, were a couple of jars of the same size which contained a fine white powder. They were labelled only “spice.”

Minho felt his grin crawling up his face as he carefully pulled his sleeves down over his hands, grabbing one of the jars and tucking it into one of the side pockets of his half-apron. He might have to do a little demonstration with the substance in front of the cops later, and that would probably suck, but maybe he could just leave the jar somewhere and subtly nudge the cops towards it. Regardless, he didn’t want to damn himself by leaving fingerprints all over the jar full of drugs.

Then another idea struck Minho, and his smile grew wider still as he set to work uncapping jars, setting up what he hoped would have a good payout later. He was halfway through unscrewing the lid of a salt jar, hands still carefully covered, when an unfamiliar voice spoke up.

“You might want to leave that one behind, bartender.”

Minho whipped around to find his way out of the storage area blocked by two of the casino’s burly security guards. Their hands were hovering at their hips and their eyes were blocked by sunglasses and they were professionals. If it came down to it, they would not hesitate.

Minho suddenly became fully aware of the absolute silence of his earbud, and he felt his heart plummet. He had literally and figuratively backed himself into a corner. He couldn’t talk his way out of this one. He let out a muted yet emphatic “shit,” anyways.

When one of the security guards stepped forward, hand coming up from his hip, Minho closed his eyes, and with some surprise found himself hoping the others would make it out alright even if he could not.

...

With something that felt an awful lot like trepidation, Felix watched Minho disappear into the back hallways of the casino.

 _He’ll be fine_ , Felix told himself. _He’s talked his way out of way worse scenarios than this._ And with any luck, Minho wouldn’t run into anyone on his way to investigate whatever hunch had him disappearing in such a hurry. Felix really, really hoped Minho had that luck.

After another moment, he forced his gaze back down to the casino schematics Changbin had laid before him half an hour ago. Felix, of course, had already memorized the plans prior to any of his crew setting foot in the casino. But, he needed to uphold the illusion that he was carefully considering all potential entrance and egress points a thief could make (of which there were seventeen entrances and twenty-three exits, if you didn’t mind a bit of kitchen scraps in your hair), and so he tracked his eyes over the floor plan.

Felix tuned back into the conversation happening in his earbud when he heard Chan’s voice.

_“Minho, I don’t think that’s a good idea. We can get Changbin and Felix to check it out under the pretense of looking for entrances or exits from the casino, and we can delay the exposé a bit. Minho? Minho!”_

There was no response.

Felix felt his trepidation grow, faster still as he saw two of the casino’s security guards raise hands to their ears, nod at each other, and head in the same direction Minho had gone.

“Changbin,” Felix started to say, and then noticed the other man was also looking in the direction the two security guards had gone.

“I saw.” Changbin replied.

 _“Saw what? Can someone please tell me what’s going on? Minho’s camera went dead just as he was passing the kitchens, where’d he go?”_ There was a note of panic in Jisung’s voice.

 _“Jisung, deep breaths,”_ Seungmin instructed. Felix pictured him reaching out to link one of his hands with Jisung’s as he’d done in earlier cons.

 _“Does anyone have eyes on Minho?”_ Chan asked.

 _“I can get in quick,”_ Jeongin offered.

 _“Me too!”_ Hyunjin added on.

 _“You can’t. You’re both burned, remember?”_ Chan said. Jeongin cursed lightly.

“Changbin and I can find him,” Felix said. He had a feeling he knew where Minho had gone. If he had been by the kitchens, as Jisung had said, he was probably headed to the small, closet-like room that Felix was betting was a storage area or pantry and thus where Minho would have gone to do his “inventory.” Felix pointed out the space to Changbin, who nodded, before his mouth fell into a frown.

“We can’t both go,” Changbin murmured, tracking his gaze along the periphery of the main room. There were security guards and cops alike milling about and working the case, and Felix understood. If both he and Changbin were to head out, especially in the same direction, it would raise some red flags.

“I’ll go,” Felix offered. Changbin opened his mouth, no doubt to protest, but Felix beat him to it. “You’re supposed to be running this, remember? So you need to stay here and manage things. Just, instruct me to go investigate a lead, or something.”

Changbin’s eyebrows furrowed, but Felix could tell by the unhappy tilt of his mouth that Changbin would relent.

 _“…Felix is right.”_ Chan sounded incredibly unhappy with the idea, but he was actually agreeing to let Felix manage this on his own, which was huge. A grin slipped onto Felix’s face before he quickly schooled himself back into his role of a super serious cop dude.

 _“Changbin, you’re on standby as his backup,”_ Chan added and, okay, Felix guessed that was fair. Baby steps, and all. _“I’m gonna start moving the pieces into place, just in case this goes south, or Felix comes into play quicker than expected. Changbin, you’ll need to come grab your jacket soon.”_

“Got it,” Changbin murmured, before raising his voice. “Officer Kim. I need you to look into the disposal units in the kitchens as a potential exit for our perp.”

“On it, sir,” Felix responded before taking off in the direction of the kitchens, and the storage room.

 _“Felix, the in-ears don’t seem to work wherever Minho ended up. If you need backup, you’ll have to leave that area before we can hear you,”_ Seungmin said.

 _“Seungmin and I can look into boosting the signal after this job,”_ Jisung added. _“But for now, yeah, you have to leave that area to talk with us, or for us to see anything through Minho’s button cam.”_

“Got it,” Felix replied. The storage area should be just around the next corner…

Rounding the corner, Felix was met with the sight of the two security guards he’d seen leave the entrance space earlier. He could just make out someone past them – Minho, probably. Then one of the security guards was pulling a gun from his waistband, and there was a silencer on its end, and Felix was moving before he could form a thought other than _GO_.

He went directly for the wrist of the man holding the gun, his leg arcing out in a sharp kick that snapped the wrist and caused the gun to clatter to the ground. Felix dropped down after it, kicking it further into the storage room for Minho to grab. Minho’s eyes had been closed when Felix had first chanced a look at him, but they were wide open now, and Felix saw him put two and two together and lunge for the gun a second later.

Felix focused his attention back on the other security guard, who was going for his own gun. Felix swept one of his legs out, catching the man behind his ankles and sending him sprawling as he knocked his legs out from underneath him. The gun fell from his waistband, and Felix sent it clattering back towards Minho.

Now it was just Felix, and the two unarmed security guards, and a twice-armed Minho. Felix very much liked those odds.

Or, he did, until he heard a familiar voice calmly state “drop your weapons.”

Nathaniel Dupont himself stepped around the corner, trailed by four other security guards who were aiming four new guns at Felix and Minho. These guns didn’t have silencers. From the corner of his eye, Felix saw Minho step forward and slowly place the two guns on the ground, just in front of himself and Felix. Within reach, if necessary.

“How dare you aim a weapon at an officer of the law,” Felix stated, doing his best to inject as much fake bravado into his voice as he could.

The little smile didn’t leave Dupont’s face. “Ah, but you aren’t an officer of the law at all, are you?” Felix felt his stomach drop, and he pressed himself lightly against Minho’s side. Dupont continued, “See, one of my security team thought you looked awfully familiar when you showed up with the rest of the police a couple days ago. So I had him look into it, and it turns out the reason you looked so familiar was because you were here the night this whole mess of an investigation started. Dressed as one of my security team, in fact! I’ve got you on camera, in uniform, walking towards a very… specific room.”

Dupont turned his gaze to Minho, and Felix felt Minho press a little firmer into his side. “This must be your accomplice. Acting as a bartender to serve as a lookout, very clever. But not clever enough, obviously.”

Dupont’s gaze fell to the slight bump in the side pocket of Minho’s apron, and his grin widened. “What’s this? The trinkets weren’t enough for you? Now you’re trying to steal my drugs, too?” Dupont plucked the jar out of Minho’s apron, placing it back on the storage shelf. He spent a minute or so aligning the jars just right before stepping back out into the hallway.

“Now, I’ve placed a call to the FBI to inform them that there is a party here impersonating a law enforcement officer, and” – there was the sudden sound of hurried footfalls on a tile floor – “ah, that must be them now! Gentlemen! Back this way!”

A half-dozen uniformed FBI agents rounded the corner. As soon as Minho caught sight of them, he took a staggering half-step forward, one hand up in a sign of surrender as the other dragged Felix along with him. They passed the threshold of the storage room.

_“…fleet of FBI finally showed up, and I swear Felix, Minho, if you don’t respond in the next thirty seconds I’m coming after you myself, I don’t care what the fallout might be…”_

Minho, apparently, ignored Changbin’s panicked mumbling. “Officers! Please, wait, before you arrest us, please check the white jars back there in the storage room. The ones labelled sugar and salt; they’re illegal drugs. Dupont has been drugging his customers!”

Felix turned wide eyes to Minho. _What the hell is he planning?_ Minho gave Felix a wink, so quick Felix thought he might’ve missed it.

“They’re lying,” Dupont snarled. “These are the thieves who stole from my casino, and now they’re trying to frame me for drug use? This is ridiculous! Here,” Dupont pushed his way past Minho and Felix and grabbed one of the jars labelled “sugar” from a shelf. He held the jar out to the FBI agent standing in front of the rest. “Try it, if you want. It’s sugar, just like the label says, used to rim glasses or enhance drinks.”

The head FBI agent carefully unscrewed the lid, dipping a finger into the powder before placing it gently on her tongue. She was silent for a moment, before addressing a question towards Dupont.

“Are all these jars yours?”

“Yes! Yes, all these jars are mine, they’re used for making mixed drinks! Can you please get back to the more pressing matter at hand?” Dupont gestured furiously at Felix and Minho.

“You own these jars?” the head FBI agent continued.

“Yes! That is literally what I just said! Now, can you please arrest these two so I can get back to running my business?”

The head FBI agent ignored him, instead turning to one of her agents and offering him the jar. “Run it.”

“What,” Dupont said. Felix saw the barest beginnings of a grin curl onto Minho’s face.

The other agent pulled out a small vial full of clear liquid and dropped a bit of the powder into the vial. The liquid instantly turned a bright blue.

The head FBI agent turned back towards Dupont. “Book him,” she said.

“What!” Dupont cried, his face turning a rather alarming shade of red as one of the other FBI agents forced his hands behind his back. “This is ridiculous, the ones you want are _right there_ , let me go this instant, you absolute–”

“GHB,” the head FBI agent said, holding up the jar of white powder. “Otherwise known as gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, otherwise known as a very illegal depressant which you have just admitted to using in the mixed drinks you serve your customers. So no, actually, I think I have exactly the man I want. In fact, I think I should check all these jars, just in case. Maybe I’ll dust for prints, while I’m at it.”

Minho was fully smiling now, and Felix felt his heart stutter at the sight. “Maybe I switched the labels a tiny bit,” Minho mumbled, lips barely moving.

 _“Minho, you incredible, sexy genius,”_ Jisung breathed out. Felix was inclined to agree.

“Choi,” the head FBI agent said, and it took every ounce of self-control Felix had not to react when Chan himself stepped up beside the agent, looking incredibly at home and incredibly hot in an FBI jacket. “Can you and your partner handle these two?” She gestured at Felix and Minho.

“Absolutely!” Chan said, giving her a smile that showed his dimples. The head FBI agent nodded at him before beginning to usher a still-sputtering Dupont and his security guards back towards the entrance hall of the casino.

Chan turned to Felix and Minho, and his smile deepened. “Well, boys?”

“Partner?” Minho asked.

“That would be me.” Changbin rounded the corner. He was also outfitted in an FBI jacket. He gave both Felix and Minho wide grins. “Turns out I’ve been undercover this whole time!”

Felix finally let go of a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, turning to Chan. “You sure took your time getting the FBI here, huh?”

Chan shrugged. “Had to wait for Dupont to finally recognize you from the heist bit and put in the call himself, and I wanted to give Minho enough time to set up his ‘hunch.’” He put air quotes around the term. “Plus, I trust you both to handle yourselves.”

Felix felt his heart swell yet again at Chan’s words, and he finally broke into a smile himself.

“Job well done?” he offered.

Chan smiled at him, wide and uninhibited. “Job well done.”

…

Jisung had asked Chan if he could help with the debrief for Mina, and Chan had agreed readily. Maybe the other had sensed that this entire con had gotten under Jisung’s skin, just a bit, and that the closure would be good for him. Maybe Chan just thought he needed a change of pace from the van.

Whatever the case, Jisung found himself seated beside Chan and across from Mina, who was looking at them with such gratitude as Chan wound down the details of the case for her.

“…then Minho was able to trick Dupont into incriminating himself with the drugging thing, and the FBI took care of the rest. Dupont won’t be able to hurt anyone, ever again. I promise.”

“Thank you.” Mina had tears lingering in the corners of her eyes, and Jisung felt his own eyes watering in response. He blinked a couple times, hard, before pulling up a receipt on his laptop and twisting it around so Mina could see.

“There’s a bonus! We did our best to get all the jewelry and expensive stuff back to their rightful owners – we have yours and your friends’ by the way, remind me to get that to you later – but there were some pieces we just weren’t able to track down the owners of. So we sold them, and then Seungmin and I ran the money through a couple different avenues to grow it some, and then we made a pretty hefty donation to RAINN! In your and your friends’ names! It can be, like, a belated birthday present for Nayeon!”

Mina was actively crying by the time Jisung stopped speaking, but she was also smiling, and so Jisung figured she’d be okay.

“That’s incredible,” she eventually managed. “You guys are incredible. Like, superheroes or something!”

“Nah,” Jisung said, smile growing on his own face as Chan rested a warm hand on his shoulder, “we’re just thieves.”

**Author's Note:**

> Literally as soon as I saw the All In MV, my brain went "you could make a Leverage AU out of this," and then I brought it up with Sun and Roel, and then we did! Definitely expect more in the future from this series (but not, you know, three days apart)
> 
> Hope you all are staying safe, healthy, and happy! Remember to wash your hands, wear your mask, tell your friends/family you love them, support social justice movements, and just be kind to yourself. We'll see you all in the next installment of this series!


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